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Maybe the Secretary General can discuss the root cause of the Korean War with Kim Jong Un.

Maybe the Secretary General can discuss the root cause of the Korean War with Kim Jong Un. That should be a fun chat.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on Israelis and Palestinians to stop the fighting that has been raging for the past two weeks and return to dialogue with the aim of addressing the underlying causes of the cycles of violence that continue to plague them.

“My message to Israelis and Palestinians is the same: Stop fighting. Start talking. And take on the root causes of the conflict, so we are not back to the same situation in another six months or a year,” Mr. Ban said in remarks to the press with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.

Thanks Ban.

Has Ban Ki-moon ever considered the possibility that it only takes one side to perpetuate a conflict? Or that the root causes of the conflict are that Hamas is part of a regional Islamic organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, whose goal is to impose Islamic theocracy on the Middle East?

Oh I know the underlying logic. Reduce the whole thing to the usual terms like "occupation" and "despair". Empower the PLO by giving them more money. And assume that Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza will then vote PLO instead of Hamas.

The problem with that is it's based on a series of false assumptions. Hamas violence isn't a response to the blockade. The blockade is a response to Hamas violence.

Whatever misery does exist in Gaza and the West Bank occurred and is occurring because Islamic terrorist groups keep attacking Israel. Blaming the conditions for the attacks is working backward.

The terrorist attacks have been the only thing obstructing both statehood and a better life. At some people even the least brightest diplomat ought to consider the possibility that the real goal here is the attacks and that statehood and complaints about conditions are just means to that end.

PM Netanyahu shows UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon the remains of a rocket fired by Hamas terrorists at Israel. pic.twitter.com/1kNXn4lst6